Follow these Insta-illustrators for a dose of creative inspiration

Love comics? Three known illustrators pick the best Instagram accounts to follow

While scrolling through our social media feeds, we’re all looking for some lighthearted, fun things to surf. The most interesting reflection of ideas, thoughts and situations these days are through illustrations. It takes immense talent and dedication to be able to put to paper something that could be a cultural cliché, a sexist stereotype or even just a cute anecdote. Instagram has some amazing illustration accounts that provide a plethora of talented illustrators.

We talk to three such talented illustrators to help us pick out the best accounts to follow and they tell us what makes these accounts so special. Our jury comprises Sayan Mukherjee, an art supervisor who has worked on books like The Gita for Children and Earthquake by Ruskin Bond among others, Tripti Jagasia, a mix media artist and Neha Sharma, a freelance illustrator and doodle artist.

@aliciasouza is not an unknown name when it comes to illustrators. She has designed at Chumbak before going on to be a freelancer. Sayan says,”She has a definite and simple style of illustration. I love the way she makes characters with minimalism.”

Sonali Zohra alias dangercat is an illustrator, photographer and designer from Bangalore.

Sayan thinks her drawings are unique. “Sonali’s work on the book The Ramayana is breathtaking. I liked her recent work on pottery as well. @danger.cat must be followed as her animal and foliage drawings are amazing. She has a unique style which is just hers,” he says.

Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, the face behind @kaverigeewhiz, is an independent illustrator from Bangalore. Tripti finds her work thoughtful. “She creates for children books and comic strips, relating anything and everything to womanhood. Her work is thoughtful, funny and realistic,” she says.

Sailesh Gopalan started @brownpaperbagcomics, which might be the most relatable comic strip ever, with daily life situations presented with a hint of sarcasm. Neha feels the same. “Even though he started making comics recently, his sarcastic take on things made him a huge hit!” she exclaims.

Meet Mounica Tata, also known as @doodleodrama, another Instagram illustrator who calls her page her ‘life journal’. She says, “I like to talk about taboo, discuss feminism, sexism, micro-aggression, the patriarchal mindset and other things that fall in this spectrum. I feel we need to open dialogues on these issues and let people have these conversations.”

Neha finds her comics very relatable. “She creates comics that are relatable, as a brown girl. At the same time, she manages to be super funny,” she says.

@green_humour is the brainchild of Rohan, a cartoonist, illustrator and animation designer hailing from Nagpur. Tripti thinks his work is definitely special. “He will trigger your mind with his realistically-witty cartoons and add space in your heart for the love of wildlife,” she says.

A post shared by Guddu and Gang (@garbagebinofficial) on Feb 21, 2017 at 8:37am PST

Anyone who has grown up in a middle-class Indian family can relate to the sarcasm, puns and jibes that @garbagebinofficial so wonderfully represents. Neha agrees too. She says, “This one revolves around the story of Guddu and Shaan who revive the childhood memories in every middle-class Indian.”

A post shared by Inkology (@inkologyart) on Apr 2, 2017 at 10:28pm PDT

Everyone has at least some screenshots of inspirational quotes. But 28-year-old Sebin Simon represents the ‘sunshiney’ stuff through beautiful illustrations on @inkologyart since 2013.

“My work is more about thought than art. The things that have been driving me to continue this work from the past few years, are the love and messages which people share with me. Most days, I get messages about how my artwork has been an inspiration to someone, or how it has motivated them or often helped them through a bad day,” he says.

Neha says he is one of her favourites. “He illustrates inspiring and motivational stuff. His series where he illustrates quotes is my personal favourite,” she adds.